THE NATURALIST DEVELOPING. 69 



though all but the greener ones take good care not to give 

 him too good a chance to bite, which he sometimes does with 

 severity while thus "playing 'possum." 



Sometimes he is tree'd in a large tree, and then the fire 

 must be built, and a serious job we have of it to got at him ; 

 but the attempt is seldom relinquished until success has at- 

 tended it. The negroes take charge of the game on our 

 return, and the next night there is a grand 'possum roast at 

 the Quarter, in which we participate only on the sly as have 

 been with the hunt. 



But to digress about our teacher. He was an eccentric person, 

 who having been poor in his young days, had acquired a fond- 

 ness for teaching, which he had adopted then from a necessity, 

 but which continued to cling to him through his life, although 

 his marriage had brought him a handsome fortune. He there- 

 fore kept up his school as an amateur, rather than from the ne- 

 cessities of the case. His plantation was a very extensive one, 

 situated on the edge of a wild country, and his admirable 

 school the favored and noted resort of the sons of the southern 

 gentry, from far and wide. 



He was a good old man, that father Hinton, and loved us 

 all as his own children. We were allowed much more license, 

 on parole of honor, than was usual at such places ; the old 

 gentleman even took a grotesque sort of pleasure, which he 

 awkwardly attempted to conceal, in examining and comment- 

 ing upon, and particularly in weighing and noting down the 

 weight of our game, the legitimate produce of any and all 

 our wild sports, except the night-hunts, which were strictly 

 interdicted. 



I shall remember his appearance to my dying day, on one 

 occasion of this sort. 



We had made an unusually successful excursion to the 

 distant Bottomless Spring Mill Pond on one Saturday, and 

 the next morning, which was Sunday, we were very eager to 

 exhibit to him our trophies, of which we were very proud. 



